Women’s Basketball to host Charlotte in WNIT

Women’s Basketball’s season will continue March 21 in the WNIT First Round when the Rams host Charlotte at the Siegel Center.

VCU (23-9, 13-3 Atlantic 10) won the A-10 regular season title via a tiebreaker with Fordham — beating the Bronx Rams head-to-head — earning an automatic bid to the WNIT tournament. But Fordham got the better of the Black and Gold March 10 in the A-10 Championship game, winning 62-47 and earning the bid to the NCAA tournament.

Coach Beth O’Boyle said playing in a postseason tournament is a “great accomplishment.”

“If you look at the season, [the team is] the co-champion of the A-10 — first time in school history,” O’Boyle said. “You get to the championship game. It’s so hard to get to a championship game. And obviously we wanted to play a little bit better against Fordham, but they earned their way to that. And I look at it again and we earned our way into the NIT.”

A season ago, the Rams finished with a 7-22. This season, they practically flipped that record.

“We’re excited to be playing in March,” O’Boyle said. “That’s every team’s goal, and that was a big step for us this year.”

Charlotte (18-12, 9-7 Conference USA) was the No. 7 seed in the C-USA tournament and fell in the quarterfinals to UAB 70-55.

“They’re a very athletic team,” O’Boyle said. “They get the ball in transition. They’re going to play a lot of man-to-man. They have a very talented guard, Jade Phillips. She can score in a variety of ways.”